1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to log collecting apparatuses, image forming apparatuses and computer-readable storage media, and more particularly to a log collecting apparatus for collecting logs from programs that run inside an image forming apparatus or the like, an image forming apparatus that uses such a log collecting apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium that stores a log collecting program for causing a computer to collect logs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In image forming apparatuses that are often referred to as composite apparatuses or multi-function peripherals (or multi-function apparatuses) and have the functions or facilities of a copying apparatus, a printer, a scanner and the like, a plurality of DAEMONs (server programs) that provide various kinds of services on an Operating System (OS) such as the UNIX (registered trademark) operate in a manner linked to each other.
In addition, in order to facilitate a cause of a fault to be specified when the fault is generated, each DAEMON is provided with a function of outputting a log that records its operating state. The log may be acquired by inputting a log acquisition command to the image forming apparatus from a personal computer or the like via a network.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an operation when collecting a log in a conventional image forming apparatus. By inputting a request 71 such as “rsh 11.22.33.44 getlog 1000” from a keyboard of the personal computer or the like, a response 72 of the log indicating the operating state is acquired. In the request 71, “rsh” indicates a command for executing a command on a remote host (image forming apparatus), “11.22.33.44” indicates an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the image forming apparatus, “getlog” indicates the log acquisition command, and “1000” indicates a log number corresponding to the DAEMON that outputs the log.
Similarly, when acquiring the logs from other DAEMONs, requests 73 through 76 with log numbers changed are repeated, so as to acquire the responses of the corresponding logs.
As described above, the log is conventionally acquired by inputting the log acquisition command to the image forming apparatus from the keyboard of the personal computer or the like via the network, which resulted in the following problems.
First, there was a problem in that a troublesome operation is required because of the need to input the log acquisition command from the keyboard of the personal computer or the like. Particularly in the existing image forming apparatus in which the plurality of DAEMONs operate in a manner linked to each other as described above, a plurality of logs must be acquired in order to locate the cause of the fault, and similar requests must be repeated a plurality of times, thereby placing a large burden on the operator (or user). In addition, in a case where the acquired logs are stored, a separate operation was required to store the acquired logs.
Second, there was a problem in that the plurality of logs that are related and used to locate the cause of the fault cannot be selected appropriately. In other words, when acquiring the log of a certain DAEMON, there are many cases where the cause of the fault cannot be specified effectively unless the logs of the other DAEMONs that operate in the manner linked to the certain DAEMON are also acquired. A program developer who develops the programs would know the mutual relationship of the DAEMONs, and the program developer would likely be able to select the appropriate the logs that are related and used to locate the cause of the fault. But the person who locates the cause of this type of fault is usually a service person who attends to the image forming apparatus at the site where the image forming apparatus is set up, and the service person cannot select the appropriate logs that are related and used to locate the cause of the fault.
Third, the log number is unified in the case of the image forming apparatuses manufactured by the same manufacturer, but the log numbers that are supported differ depending on the model of the image forming apparatus. Hence, when the log acquisition command is input to the image forming apparatus, the log may not be acquired if the selected log number is not supported. If the operator recognizes that the selected log number is not supported, the situation may be remedied although the operation that are made and the time are slightly wasted. However, if the operator erroneously recognizes the situation as another fault where the log becomes non-acquirable, this erroneous recognition will have adverse effects when thereafter specifying the cause of the fault.
Fourth, even in a case where the logs to be acquired are known from experience depending on the type of fault, the service person (or operator) who attends to the image forming apparatus at the site where the image forming apparatus is set up may not have such knowledge, and without such knowledge, there was a problem in that the service person cannot select the appropriate logs.
Fifth, when specifying the cause of the fault, the detail (fineness or roughness) of the desired logs differs depending on the situation, but conventionally, it is only possible to acquire the logs of the same detail level (or the same layer of the hierarchical structure) for the same log number. As a result, there was a problem in that it is troublesome to obtain the desired information from the logs of the same detail level.